Lafayette's visit celebrated the success of the American Republic, of unity and prosperity.

Meet Octavia Walton Levert, Alva Smith Belmont, and Yolande Betbeze Fox. Their lives spanned across the nineteenth and twentieth-centuries b

In Mobile it is popular to say America’s first Mardi Gras was celebrated in Mobile in 1703. But popular media in Louisiana has traditionally

A YEAR OF CONTRASTS Just before the "Hurricane of 1906," hit Mobile on September 26th, the city appeared to prosper as never before,...

Flag_of_Alabama, Wikimedia Commons Quick quiz: What is Mobile’s historic motto? If you’re not sure, don’t beat yourself up about it. Two...

When we think of Mobile’s worst hurricanes, Frederick of 1979 comes immediately to mind. Beyond that, we are sometimes reminded of the...

General Gordon Granger, Wikimedia Commons Proclamation Number Three, issued by General Gordon Granger on June 19, 1865, informed the...

Was 1703 really the "first," or "original" Mardi Gras celebration in America ? Perhaps it is the nature of the beast, Mardi Gras in all of its mystery, must remained shrouded in myth. But the myth of Mardi Gras in colonial Mobile is problematic not only because it presents Mobile as a city with an antiquated perspective, one which relies on oral tradition and hearsay, but it also perpetuates an outdated Euro-centric view of this era. While new resources and technologies have

Did Mardi Gras in America start in New Orleans or Mobile? The only way to answer that question has, for over 100 years, been manipulated by semantics to suit the agendas of these rival Gulf Coast port cities. The only honest answer must begin by asking "what do you mean by ‘Mardi Gras’”? The debate continues only because the word is used to mean two different things with each side using a meaning to suit their argument without recognizing the other. Much like the word "Creol

Reconsidering the image of "slave traders" in antebellum society. Case in point, Benjamin Vincent

Before the 1820s, Mobile was an almost forgotten outpost of European monarchies. But after Alabama gained statehood, the port gained new...